Mine

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Mine" from her "Speak Now" album.

I first heard this song before I became a Taylor Swift fan.  Yeah I remember hearing "Teardrops On My Guitar" on the radio and could sing along with it on the radio, but I wasn't a true fan.  I heard about this song because it was leaked, yes leaked.  So what did Taylor do?  She decided to release it early.  Genius.  And of course her plan worked.  Her third album "Speak Now" was hugely successful.

Who was this song about?

Taylor told Yahoo music in 2010, "This is a situation where a guy that I just barely knew put his arm around me by the water, and I saw the entire relationship flash before my eyes."

Who was this person?

It may be a little confusing because the hidden word in "Mine" is TOBY, but it is really about Cory Monteith.  (Toby Hemingway was in the music video for "Mine".  She couldn't have wrote it about him because she didn't know him until after she wrote the song when she was filming the music video.  She may have included his name because he was in the music video and/or she was interested in him)  Taylor and Cory hung out from January 2010 to about April 2010.  They even went bowling together with Selena Gomez.  They became good friends.  Unfortunately it didn't work out.

Taylor told Yahoo music, "After I wrote the song, things sort of fell apart, as things so often do. And I hadn't talked to him in a couple months. And the song came out, and that day, I got an e-mail from him. And I was like, 'Yes!' Because that one was sort of half-confession and half-prediction or projection of what I saw."

She was scared of him, scared of what could have been.

"It's a song that's about my tendency to run from love. Every really direct example of love I've had in front of me has ended in goodbye and in breakups and things like that, so I've developed this pattern of running away when it comes time to fall in love and stay in a relationship and this song is about finding an exception to that and finding the person that makes you believe in love and realize that it can work out."

This is what she imagined if she hadn't been scared. The song tells the story of a couple meeting. The boy  was in college, th girl. a waitress.  They fall in love, "You put your arm around me for the first time." They fight, "And I remember that fight, 2:30 a.m." They make up and he says, "I'll never leave you alone."  The music video further elaborates on this theme showing them moving in together, getting married, and having children.  One day Taylor I hope you find the person that doesn't make you afraid and you can have a great life with them.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Mine".

Click here to see the music video for the song, "Mine". 

*I couldn't write this post without addressing Cory's death.  It was a sad day especially for Taylor.  I know how she feels.  When friends of mine have passed away it is very hard, very hard.  I hope that all his family and friends and Taylor have experienced comfort with his passing and remember all the good times they had with him.

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"Last Kiss"

Today's Taylor Swift song is "Last Kiss" from her Speak Now album.

This song tells the story of a great love and how the boy just left and she doesn't understand why.  How she never thought their last kiss would be their last kiss, "I never thought we'd have a last kiss/Never imagined we'd end like this."

Who is this song about?

The hint comes in the liner notes, FOREVER AND ALWAYS.  "Forever and Always" was the name of a song from Taylor's "Fearless" album and that song was about Joe Jonas.  "Last Kiss" is about Joe Jonas!

Taylor said on her website, "The song 'Last Kiss' is sort of like a letter to somebody. You say all of these desperate, hopeless feelings that you have after a breakup. Going through a breakup you feel all of these different things. You feel anger, and you feel confusion, and frustration. Then there is the absolute sadness. The sadness of losing this person, losing all the memories, and the hopes you had for the future. There are times when you have this moment of truth where you just admit to yourself that you miss all these things. When I was in one of those moments I wrote this song."

She treasured their love, was so excited for it, "I do recall now the smell of the rain/I ran off the plane/The beat of your heart/It jumps through your shirt/I can still feel your arms." She contrasts this with sitting "on the floor/Wearing your clothes/All that I know is/I don't know how to be something you miss/I never thought we'd have a last kiss/Never imagined we'd end like this/Your name, forever the name on my lips."  What she had with Joe Jonas was special, but he didn't treasure it like she did. She "never planned on you [Joe] changing your mind." He did change his mind and in the moment she wrote this song she missed him.  For the story of their breakup, check out "Forever and Always". 

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Last Kiss".

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Speak Now

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of the song "Speak Now" from her Speak Now album.

This song inspired the name of her third album Speak Now. Taylor tells The Boot in November 2010 "I've always been fascinated by that moment, in a wedding because I think it's a metaphor for a lot of times in our life when we're just about to do something, and that's when we realize that we want it, and that's when we realize that we have to speak up."  This song is not about Taylor, but about one of her close friends.  Who is it?

Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler

Her friend Kellie Pickler!  Taylor says in an exclusive E! News interview, "She [Kellie Pickler] one day comes in and tells me, "He's getting married." He had met this girl who was this horrible mean person who made him like completely stop talking to all of his friends, cut off his family, had him so completely isolated. And I just kind of randomly was like "Huh, are you going to speak now?"  She's like, 'What do you mean?' 'You know like storm the church? Speak now or forever hold your peace? I'll go with you, I'll play guitar."

"The song was inspired by the idea of bursting into your ex-boyfriend's wedding and saying 'Don't do it'-which was originally inspired by one of my friends and the fact that the guy she had been in love with since childhood was marrying this other girl," she explained to me. "And my first inclination was to say, 'Well, are you gonna speak now?' And then I started thinking about what I would do if I was still in love with someone who was marrying someone who they shouldn't be marrying. And so I wrote this song about exactly what my game plan would be..

The secret message in this song is, YOU ALWAYS REGRET WHAT YOU DON'T SAY.  You definitely regret what you don't say.  I love this album because it is all about speaking your mind and letting those around you know how you feel.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Speak Now".

A bit of trivia, Taylor also wrote another song with Kellie, "The Best Days of Your Life."  Taylor plays the guitar in the music video and sings back up vocals.

Click here to see the music video. It tells a great story.

Kellie told AOL, "Taylor Swift and I actually wrote this song together while we were on tour with Brad Paisley. I had went through a really bad break-up a while back, so we wrote the song about the relationship that went sour. It's so funny, because Taylor always says that she has the 'Picture to Burn' song and Carrie Underwood has 'Before He Cheats' ... and now 'Best Days Of Your Life' - that's my kiss off song! He [my ex] has heard it and so has the person he's with now, so I guess it's bittersweet."

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Never Grow Up

Today's Taylor Swift song is "Never Grow Up" from her Speak Now album.

When I first heard this song I did not relate to it as well, but the more I hear it the more I understand.  It made me think of a little baby growing up and the mom not wanting the baby to grow up.  I think it is amazing Taylor has such great insight because she does not have kids, but she really sees how it is from the perspective of a parent.  

Who is this song about?

It is about Taylor! The secret hint is "MOVED OUT IN JULY".  She moved out from her parents house July 2010.

In the first verse she talks about a little baby, "Your little hand's wrapped around my finger".  The second verse, the child is 14, "You're in the car on the way to the movies/And you're mortified your mom's dropping you off/But don't make her drop you off around the block/Remember that she's getting older too".  She then starts talking about herself in the middle part of the song, "Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room/Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home".  She mentions her little brother, "remember the words said/And all your little brother's favorite songs".  And then mentions herself, "I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone".  The next verse she is "in my new apartment/In a big city, they just dropped me off/It's so much colder that I thought it would be/So I tuck myself in and turn my night light on".  She realizes it is not like home, it is scary, "Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up/I could still be little/Oh I don't wanna grow up, wish I'd never grown up It could still be simple".  Then she brings the song away from herself again.  "Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple/Won't let nobody hurt you/Won't let no one break your heart."

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Never Grow Up".

Taylor said on her website, "'Never Grow Up' is a song about the fact that I don't quite know how I feel about growing up. It's tricky. Growing up happens without you knowing it. Growing up is such a crazy concept because a lot of times when you were younger you wish you were older. I look out into a crowd every night and I see a lot of girls that are my age and going through exactly the same things as I'm going through. Every once in a while I look down and I see a little girl who is seven or eight, and I wish I could tell her all of this. There she is becoming who she is going to be and forming her thoughts and dreams and opinions. I wrote this song for those little girls."

What is her home like? 

Taylor told Rolling stone, "It's going to be my fantasy world. The ceiling of my living room is painted like the night sky. There's a pond in the living room ... The pond is a moat around the fireplace and may possibly have koi fish in it. You step on a stepping stone in the pond in order to get on a spiral staircase, which takes you up to the human-sized bird cage observatory. They're delivering a human-size birdcage, which I'll put a brass telescope in."

Rolling Stone was invited into her apartment in 2012 and described it in an article on her. "There is a pond, complete with koi fish, in the middle of Swift's astonishing, many-colored Nashville condo. It sits beneath a wrought-metal spiral staircase leading to a human-size birdcage that faces floor-to-ceiling windows, with a view stretching to the green mountains beyond downtown. ('It's the most comfortable place in the world,' she says of the wooden cage, built from a sketch she made. 'It's just, like, pillows and comfiness.')

Under the previous owner, this was an ultramodern bachelor pad. Over 18 months of remodeling, Swift gave the condo a sex change and a heavy dose of well-funded OCD whimsy. The ceiling is arranged in multiple motifs – billowing curtains here, a painted indigo night sky there. In one corner, under hanging crystalline stars, sits a giant bunny made of moss. He's wearing a hat. 'It's a whole Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland structure here,' she says, welcoming me the next morning. 'It's what the inside of my brain looks like, essentially.' "

She told Jay Leno November 23, 2010 all about her new life, living on her own.

"I moved in the beginning of the summer. I've been working on this condo in Nasvhille about a year, doing construction. When I walked in, it was really trendy, and I eventually fell in love with it. But the inside of it was like a dude's bachelor ... and I was like, we need to change this and make it cozy and pretty and mismatched! So we ripped out everything [and] put in like barn, hardwood floors, old reclaimed brick ... And the kitchen! Oh my God, I love my kitchen! It's got mismatched colored cabinets and mismatched knobs on cabinets and mismatched chairs ... but it's very girly, and they're well-matched mismatched! There's lots of pillows everywhere."

"I love cooking. It's one of my favorite things to do. And now I have my own kitchen -- so now I can! And I make my bed everyday! [laughs] I didn't used to do that, back when I lived at home. My mom comes over now, and she'll walk in and be like, 'Wow ... so you do this now? You didn't do this before, but you do this now. Great.' [laughs]"

"Because that would be dude-like ... so I was contemplating not having any TVs in my place at all. I was like, do I really need a TV? And then at the end, I realized I did. But I put it in this contraption that I found online, where you can have it hidden, and then have it come up when you want to see it. Because it's a very antique kind of apartment, so I thought, I can't have a big TV mounted on the wall! It would ruin everything. So I had to hide it ...and you push a button, so it comes up! Sometimes when I'm alone, I'll push up, down ... up, down! [laughs] You can do that when you're alone-- and nobody's gonna judge you! [laughs]"

Here's a peek inside her house.

It is scary to grow up and move out on your own.  I was 18 when I moved out and my aunt dropped me off at school.  It was for college.  I wondered how I would fit in, how it would be.  It ended up being one of the best experiences of my life.  Taylor's been moved out for a while now and I think she is enjoying it, even if it does come with heartbreak and loneliness sometimes, that's part of growing up.

*On a side note, I have now been to one of her houses, in NYC.  It was a amazing and she was a perfect host. Taylor thanks for being so nice and opening your homes to fans!

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Better Than Revenge

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Better Than Revenge" from her "Speak Now" album.

Taylor Swift, courtesy of taylorswift.com

This is a great revenge song.  What is worse than your boyfriend breaking up with you?  Your boyfriend breaking up with you because he's dating another girl!

Who is this song about?

Taylor tells the story in the song. "The story starts when it was hot and it was summer and.../I had it all, I had him right where I wanted him/She came along, got him alone and let's hear the applause/She took him faster than you could say 'sabotage' ".  Taylor started dating Joe Jonas in July 2008, but was in for a surprise   Camilla Belle unexpectedly pulled Joe Jonas out from under Taylor Swift's nose. They met when he was filming his music video for "Lovebug".  She "never saw it coming, wouldn't have suspected it/I underestimated just who I was dealing with". He broke up with her in October 2008 and started dating Camilla.  Joe broke it off with Taylor and she was confused and heartbroken, see the song "Forever and Always".

Joe Jonas and Camilla Belle

But Taylor has something to say to Ms Camilla Belle, "go stand in the corner and think about what you did". And to everyone else, "She's not a saint/And she's not what you think/She's an actress, whoa", "Stealing other people's toys/On the playground won't/Make you many friends", "Or pushing people down it gets you where you wanna go."  She is letting her know (and the whole world, ie the revenge part) she did not appreciate her for stealing him and is helping her learn her lesson.  "They wouldn't teach you that in prep school so it's up to me...There is nothing I do better than revenge"

It didn't last for Camilla and Joe, what does when you start it like that?  They broke up in July 2009.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Better Than Revenge".

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Innocent

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Innocent" from her "Speak Now" album.

Taylor performed this song for the first time at the 2010 VMA's, September 12th.  She chose to perform this song because of a specific event that took place at the 2009 VMA's.

Taylor performing at the 2010 VMA's, 9/12/2010

  Click here for video of the live performance to "Innocent".

What happened at the 2009 VMA's?

Taylor Swift had just won Best Female Video for "You Belong To Me".  She was delivering her acceptance speech when Kanye West came onstage, stole the microphone and said, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!"  It was a shock to everyone there including Beyoncé who let Taylor come back up on stage when she won Video of the Year.  President Obama even weighed in on the controversy.

Kanye West and Taylor Swift, 2009 VMA's, September 13, 2009

Taylor told The View September 15, 2009, "Well, I think my overall thought process was something like, 'Wow, I can't believe I won, this is awesome, don't trip and fall, I'm gonna get to thank the fans, this is so cool. 'Oh, Kanye West is here. Cool haircut. What are you doing there?' And then, 'Ouch.' And then, 'I guess I'm not gonna get to thank the fans.' You know, I'm not gonna say that I wasn't rattled by it. But I had to perform live five minutes later, so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform."

Kanye did feel bad for what happened that night, but I don't know if it was more over the bad press he was getting or he really felt sorry.  In a series of Twitter messages Kanye said, "She deserves the apology more than anyone... Who am I to run on stage? I would never ever again in a million years do that. Sorry to let you down. It is distasteful to cut people off as a general rule. What's the point of dressing tastefully if I'm going to act the complete opposite? Yes I was that guy. A 32 year old child. When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE ... I take the responsibility for my actions. Beyonce didn't need that. MTV didn't need that and Taylor and her family friends and fans definitely didn't want or need that."

So what did Taylor do? She wrote a song. In the song "Innocent" she compares making mistakes in childhood versus making mistakes when you are older. She let Kanye know that she accepted his apology and that grown ups can make mistakes too.  "It's okay, life is a tough crowd/32, and still growin' up now/Who you are is not what you did./You're still an innocent."  

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Innocent".

Taylor told Access Hollywood "The decision to perform 'Innocent' on the VMA's was very inline with what the album is about. The album is called Speak Now, it's about saying, saying what you need to say at the moment that you need to say it.  I had a bunch of different options going into the VMA's.  I could have sung a different song, I could've not gone, I could've done a bunch of different things, but I felt like going to the VMA's and singing a song about how I had felt, it seemed like the right call if I'm going to live my life in the way that I wrote that album."

I think that Kanye is a still a jerk for what he did, but kudos to Taylor for taking the higher road and forgiving him.

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The Story of Us

Today's Taylor Swift song is "The Story of Us" from her "Speak Now" album.

I can really relate to this song.  I have definitely fallen hard for someone and thought there was going to be this huge romantic story of "How we met and the sparks flew instantly", but it just seemed to fizzle. I am usually forced to see them again and it is super awkward.  I stand there "alone in a crowded room and/nervously pulling at my clothes and trying to look busy" while they do their "best to avoid me".   You don't know if you should say something or wait for him to say something.  That is the way Taylor feels in this song.  She knows "The battle's in your hands now/But I would lay my armor down/If you said you'd rather love than fight."

Click here for lyrics to the song, "The Story of Us."

Who is the guy that made Taylor feel so alone?

"The Story of Us" album art, courtesy of taylorswift.com

Taylor told Brian Mansfield of USA Today "The Story of Us is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other. I just wanted to say to him, 'Is this killing you? Because it's killing me.' But I didn't. Because I couldn't. Because we both had these silent shields up.

I went home and I sat there at the kitchen table and I said to my mom, 'I felt like I was standing alone in a crowded room.' Then I got up and ran into my bedroom, as she's seen me do many times. And she probably assumed I had come up with a line in the song. And I had. And that was actually the last song I wrote on the album, and after I finished that one, I knew I was done."

What was the awards show.  Taylor revels it in her hidden lyrics message, "CMT AWARDS".  And who was there at the June 9, 2010 awards show?  John Mayer! 

He didn't end things properly with Taylor, he probably just quit calling or responding to her, like so many guys do when they are not interested in a girl.  Why can't they just say something and be polite and let the girl know how they feel instead of leading them on and not letting them know "page you're on"?

Click here for the music video to the song, "The Story of Us".

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Ours

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Ours" from her deluxe Target "Speak Now" album.

This song is about people judging relationships. It's kind of like "Love Story" where people didn't like a guy she had a crush on, but this time she goes for it and doesn't listen to them.  I can not even imagine what it is like to be Taylor and have all her dates splashed across the news.  I went on lots of dates with people only once, twice or three times, it didn't  work out, but the whole world didn't know about it.  That is why you date so you can see if you get along with that person and have that special spark.  Taylor doesn't have that luxury.   If she is spotted with a guy it is front page news, and when there are no follow up dates, the news stands make up all sorts of reasons why it didn't.  And when she starts to date a guy they instantly analyze the relationship with harsh opinions.

But Taylor is strong and stands up to the media/friends/family and lets her suitors know,

"Seems like there's always someone who disapproves/They'll judge it like they know about me and you/The jury's out, my choice is you."  It doesn't matter what other people think, she will do what she wants when it comes to love and follow her heart.

In VH1's storytellers 2012 Taylor said, "Its a song about someone that I really liked at the time.  What's kind of happened with my life, which has been interesting is there are like a lot of opinions about who you fall in love with which happens in everybody's life.  You fall in love with someone and all of the sudden your friends start chiming in and in my case its like, 'they don't look cute together', 'he's got tattoos',  'he's too tall for her', 'he's too short for her', 'he's too young for her', 'he's too old for her'.  I think that when two people fall in love it should just be about those two people. When I was dating someone that people didn't think I should've been dating, because I shouldn't have been dating him. When I was dating a guy that people didn't have too much of a good opinion about me dating I wrote this song to let him know that I didn't care what anyone else thought and it's called 'Ours'."

Who is this song about? Who was the guy that Taylor liked at the time?

The hint is in the lines,

"Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me/Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles/Cause I love the gap between your teeth/And I love the riddles that you speak/And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored".

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "Ours".

Who has ghosts from his past with lip gloss smiles, ie other women, a gap between his teeth, speaks in riddles, and tattoos?

John Mayer!  If you look at the following picture you can see the gap in his bottom teeth. Too bad it didn't last because Taylor was definitely smitten.

*As a side note, I especially love the music video to the song, I can totally relate to it.  In the video the main character is going to work and works in a cubicle.  She is constantly bored throughout the day and thinking about her boyfriend the whole time. She has a sticky note from her boyfriend with "I love you" on it.  I totally worked in a cubicle and was bored all day and got sticky notes from hubby.  I can also relate to the broken printer, annoying coworkers, the water cooler, and eating lunch alone.  How does she know what it's like, she's never worked in a cubicle?  It's amazing how she can just relate to ordinary people.  At the end of the video we find out he is a service member and my husband is a service member!  I showed this video to my husband and he loved it too.

Click here for the music video, "Ours."

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Dear John

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Dear John" from her "Speak Now" album.

I like this song, but I don't like the person the song is about so I have been avoiding writing about this song. But it does need to be included. This song makes me think of all the stupid guys I knew before I met my husband, the ones that would constantly play games with my head. I am SO glad I found my husband.

Who is it about?

It is about John Mayer.

They first performed together on March 23, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where they performed "Your Body is a Wonderland" together during her "Fearless" tour. During that same month John tweeted, "Waking up to this song idea that won't leave my head. 3 days straight now. That means it's good enough to finish. It's called 'Half of My Heart' and I want to sing it with Taylor Swift. She would make a killer 'Nicks' in contrast to my 'Petty' of a song." Taylor was so excited saying, "I freaked out when I heard, because I've been such a big fan of John for such a long time. I'm really excited about just the idea that he would even mention me in his Twitter!" They teamed up and recorded "Half of My Heart" together. They dated from late 2009 to early 2010, after Taylor broke up with Taylor Launter. It could have gotten over early as the end of January or the beginning of February.

While dating him, she told Rolling Stone magazine in January 2010, "I'm always going to love Keith Urban, I'm always going to love John Mayer. I'm always going to love people like that, who I feel are truly authentic, and that's not to say that my music will ever sound like theirs, but I'm inspired by people who I feel know exactly who they are, and that inspires me to continue to figure out and inform who I am as an artist."

But Taylor knew she shouldn't date him. Her "mother accused me of losing my mind". Everyone was told her to, "run as fast as you can." John was flighty and led her on big time, "And I lived in your chess game/But you changed the rules everyday/Wonderin’ which version of you I might get on the phone, tonight". He liked to "keep the lines blurry."

She delivers a major blow to him in the song, "Or maybe it’s you and your sick need/To give love and take it away". He does seem to be all about the chase and once he gets the girl, he dumps her really fast. Taylor says that "you'll add my name to your long list of traitors who don't understand/All the girls that you run dry have tired lifeless eyes/Cause you burned them out." John has dated a lot of women including Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston and hurt them really bad too. He doesn't say the nicest things about them when he breaks up with them.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Dear John".

John responded to the song, but I think it's all malarkey, he totally deserved it because he is such a jerk! He can dish it out, but can not take it AT ALL. It will be in small print also because that is what I think of his words.

John Mayer told Rolling Stone in 2012, "It made me feel terrible, Because I didn't deserve it. I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do. I never got an e-mail. I never got a phone call, I was really caught off-guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I’d already been dressed down. I mean, how would you feel if, at the lowest you’ve ever been, someone kicked you even lower?” When asked about the song's line, “Don’t you think I was too young to be messed with?” Mayer says, “I don’t want to go into that.”

"I will say as a songwriter that I think it's kind of cheap songwriting, I know she's the biggest thing in the world, and I'm not trying to sink anybody's ship, but I think it's abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, 'Wait till he gets a load of this!' That's bulls...."

Taylor responded in an interview with Cynthia McFadden in October 2012 when asked about John Mayer's response to the song, "How presumptuous! I never disclose who my songs are about."

I have a feeling some recent songs are about him, and more in her "Red" album coming out on Monday.

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Long Live

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Long Live" from her "Speak Now" album.

Who is this song about?

The Agency, Taylor Swift's band

Her band, her producers, and her fans!

In the lyric liner notes the words "THANK YOU" are in all caps.

On her website, Taylor said, "This song is about my band, and my producer, and all the people who have helped us build this brick by brick. The fans, the people who I feel that we are all in this together, this song talks about the triumphant moments that we've had in the last two years. We've had times where we just jump up and down, and dance like we don't care how we're dancing, and just scream at the top of our lungs, "How is this happening?" And, I feel very lucky to even have had one of those moments, nonetheless all the ones that I got to have. 'Long Live' is about how I feel reflecting on it.

This song for me is like looking at a photo album of all the award shows, and all the stadium shows, and all the hands in the air in the crowd. It's sort of the first love song that I've written to my team."

In the first verse Taylor talks about some of the first times they performed, "The night you danced like you knew our lives/Would never be the same."  While I have never been in a band there are definite moments in my life where I knew life would never be the same, my first day of college, my wedding, and the birth of my first child.  Those are all profound events that changed my life forever.  There are also times when I've taken a certain path and as I am heading down I know life is not going to be the same.

She speaks out to the critics, "When they gave us our trophies/And we help them up for our town/And the cynics were outraged/Screaming this is absurd."  There have been many critics, but Taylor just keeps pulling out those awards and getting better and better.

Then she talks about what she wants if it all ends, "But if god forbid fate should step in/And force us into a goodbye/If you have children some day/When they point to the pictures/Please tell them my name/Tell them how the crowds went wild."  She wants her band to remember the good times and to remember her.

Click here for lyrics to the song, "Long Live".

The Agency got it's name when they filmed the video for "Picture To Burn", where they were all wearing suits.

Members of the band include: Taylor Swift (lead singer, songwriter, guitar, @taylorswift13), Al Wilson (drummer, band leader, @alsdrum), Grant Mickelson (guitarist, @GrantMickelson), Amos J. Heller (bass player, @amosjheller), Caitlin Elizabeth Evanson (fiddle player, vocals, @caitlinbird), Paul Sidoti (guitarist, vocals, @paulsidoti), Michael Meadows (banjo player, @smalltownmike), David Cook (keyboards, piano, @davidcookmusic), Daniel Sadownick (percussion, congas, @DSadownick)

The backup singers are: Carly Thomas Smith, Melanie Nyema (@melanienyema), Clare Turton, and Kamilah Marshall (@kamilahmarshall).

The dance crew include: Claire Callaway (@ClaireCallaway2) and Charity Lynne Baroni (@ChaeLynne).

Former band members include: Elizabeth Huett, (backup singer, @elizabethhuett), Ben Clark (banjo, mandolin, dobro, guitar and piano, @banjobenclark), and Emily Poe (fiddle).

(Information courtesy of http://theswiftagency.com)

"Long Live" live performance in Hollywood, CA

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Superman

Today's Taylor Swift song is the meaning of "Superman" from her deluxe "Speak Now" Target album.

photo credit: Amanda Faria

At a concert in Kansas City, September 24 Taylor played this song and told the audience,  “This is about, well, a guy, as usual. This was a guy that I was sort of enamored with. This song got its title by something that I just said randomly in conversation. He walked out of the room, I turned to one of my friends and said, ‘It’s like watching Superman fly away.’”

Who is it about?

John Mayer!  We all know that "Dear John" is about John Mayer.  I haven't bothered to write that post yet because it is very obvious.  But this song is about him too.  The clue lies in the liner notes.  The liner clue notes in Dear John is LOVED YOU FROM THE VERY FIRST DAY.  This just happens to be a line that appears twice in "Superman", " 'I loved you from the very first day".

In the song Swift describes the man as "Tall, dark and beautiful, He's complicated, he's irrational", but she hopes that "someday you'll take me away and save the day", and hopes he "don't save some other girl", and "don't forget about me." Some other major clues are in these lines, "Something in his deep brown eyes has me sayin', "He's not all bad like his reputation, And I can't hear one single word they say."  John Mayer does have brown eyes, a bad reputation and she did not listen to others warnings about him.  I do not like John Mayer very much, maybe that is why I haven't written the posts about the other songs that are about him.  He led her along while she was, "Wishing the flowers were from you, Wishing the card was from you" and waiting, "right here on the ground, When you come back down."  Boo John Mayer.

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Mean

Today's Taylor Swift song, the meaning of "Mean" from her "Speak Now" album.

Mean Cover art, courtesy of taylorswift.com

Let me just say I love this song!  It is one of my favorites on the album. I really relate to Taylor Swift here.

In an interview with People magazine Taylor said, "Some days I'm fine and I can just brush it off and go about my day, but some days it absolutely levels me. All I can do is continue to try to work hard every single day and feel everything. I think it's important to feel things because I then write songs about that. The whole idea of being criticized and the fact that that entered my life made for a song that I'm very proud of on the record called 'Mean.'" 

I so relate to that comment, sometimes I can brush off criticism, sometimes it just stays and stays and stays with me.  I too like to get out emotions using the written word.  I have a poem journal and regular prose journals.  I especially think of one person when I hear this song that criticized me relentlessly.  It took me forever to get over the criticism, but I am finally free of it.  And this song just helped a little more.

What was the situation in Taylor's life that spawned this song?

His evil name was Bob Lefsetz.  I only include his review here because it is what spawned the song.  I do not agree with it or endorse his words in any way.  Don't read it if you don't want to get mad. It's in really small print too, because that's how I feel about his words.

 Grammy's....2/1/2010

Everybody could sing!  Could almost make you a Celine Dion fan.  Especially after experiencing Taylor Swift.

How awful was she?

Dreadful.

"Fearless" deserved to win Album of the Year.  I was glad it did.  Scuttlebutt was it was DMB’s year, but to say "GrooGrux" is good is to be a tie-dyed hippie hanging out in the parking lot before a show that features great playing but mediocre material.  "GrooGrux" sold to a small coterie, most people don’t care.  But Taylor Swift is as mainstream as you can get.  Triumphing in two formats.  Speaking her truth to her audience.  I love "Fearless".  You can play it from start to finish, again and again, it’s honest.  But last night’s performance…

Do you remember Billy Squier’s pink video?  Which killed his career overnight?  Take a peek: 

Billy Squier "Rock Me Tonite"

What was a hard rocker doing prancing around in a pink tank top?  What was a neophyte artist doing sharing a stage with a legend who made it before auto-tune, before studio tricks could make anybody a singer?

I don’t need to analyze the performance.  (H..., what I don’t get is how Taylor rearranged her own hit song.) But what I am interested in is the impact.  Because now, everybody knows that Taylor Swift can’t sing.  Is this what they’ll remember?

Now unlike Billy Squier’s pink video, there won’t be endless repetition on MTV.  And one can question how much of the target audience saw this performance.  But the cognoscenti did, and to what degree do they now want to distance themselves from Ms. Swift?

In other words, did Taylor Swift kill her career overnight?

I’ll argue she did.  Oh, I’m not fully convinced of that, but let’s start from this position.

She’ll be even further hated in Nashville (and what kind of fucked up world do we live in where the CMAs are better than the Grammys?)  I’d love to say whored out Top Forty radio stations will ignore her, but this is doubtful, still…

In one fell swoop, Taylor Swift consigned herself to the dustbin of teen phenoms.  Who we expect to burn brightly and then fade away.  From New Kids On The Block to Backstreet Boys to Miley Cyrus.  A wall is created, stating you can’t come any further.  Debbie Gibson can appear in shows on Broadway, but she can’t have a hit record, the powers-that-be won’t let it happen.

Taylor’s too young and dumb to understand the mistake she made.  And those surrounding her are addicted to cash and are afraid to tell her no.  But last night Taylor Swift SHOULD have auto-tuned.  To save her career.

They say it’s easy to fake it in the twenty first century.

But one thing we know is the truth will always come out.

It’s hard to be a singer if you can’t sing.

Ultimately, we want our stars to be genuine.  Without this credibility, your time atop the charts is brief.

Taylor Swift shortened her career last night.  And since she says she calls all her own shots, she has to shoulder the blame.  Yes, her dream came true, she made it, she’s a star, but the real test is longevity.  Elton John can play with GaGa decades later.  Will Taylor Swift be duetting with the stars of the 2030s?  Doubtful.

Okay it's the end of the letter you can look again.  I have a couple of things to say to Bob.  You are going to sitting in a "bar, talking over a football game with that same big loud opinion but nobody's listening....Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't sing." Taylor is still going to be famous and she can sing.  Look at how well "Speak Now" has done and how just the first two songs of her new album "Red" have done.  Everything she touches is gold.

Last of all here are some more words from Taylor about the song,   “There’s constructive criticism, there’s professional criticism, and then there’s just being mean. And there’s a line that you cross when you just start to attack everything about a person… This happens no matter what you do, no matter how old you are, no matter what your job is, no matter what your place is in life, there’s always gonna be someone who’s just mean to you. And dealing with that is all that you can control, how you handle it. This song is about how I handle it.”

Ditto Taylor!  There is definitely a difference between constructive criticism and just being mean!  Thanks for giving everyone a way to deal with all the mean people.

Click here for the lyrics, "Mean".

I absolutely love the feel of this video.

Click here for the official music video for the song, "Mean".

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Sparks Fly

Today's Taylor Swift song, the meaning of "Sparks Fly". I love this song. It reminds me of the love of my life, not the whole song, but the line "'cause I see sparks fly whenever you smile." I love being around my love and the love just gets stronger and stronger. That is the beautiful things about Taylor Swift songs. Sometimes you relate to the whole song, sometimes just a little, but you can relate to almost all of them. Here she is a big celebrity and you can still relate to her songs. She writes in a way that speaks to everyone.

Who is this song about? There are a few hints. In the lyrics booklet the word PORTLAND OREGON is in capital letters. In the song she also mentions rain twice, "The way you move is like a full on rainstorm", and "Meet me in the pouring rain". It rains a lot in Portland. In the last part of the music video it is also raining. Taylor says about this song, "This is a song that I wrote a few years ago and had been working on it ever since in the last two years and just honing in on little lyrics and changing them, so it’s really been awesome to see it change over the years.”
She opened for Jake Owen in October 2006 in, drum roll please.....Portland, Oregon. Here is an exert from her myspace journal.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Happy Halloween Happy Halloween! I’m sitting at the airport in Portland, Oregon.. About to get on a red-eye flight (Oh yes, I just said red-eye. Meaning, all night. This should be interesting…) to Toronto, Canada for another weekend of Rascal Flatts shows. Tonight was awesome. It was a show in Portland at a bar called Duke’s, I opened up for Jake Owen. And a little back-story, I’ve had his album on repeat for the past couple of months.. It’s an amazing album and I literally cannot stop listening to it. I’ve got every line memorized, and if you see me on a plane.. Chances are, I’m listening to some song off that album, at a volume level that’s probably going to cause long-term hearing damage someday. ANYWAY. I got to walk in on his sound check and meet him. Turns out he’s extremely cool, and had bought my album on iTunes. And since I had to leave after one song of his set, he played my favorite song “8 Second Ride” first. Which is another reason why he’s awesome. And just to let everyone know, YES, I did dress up for Halloween. Yes, I stood onstage in an angel costume with huge wings (that really conflicted with my guitar playing). And I convinced my two guitar players Todd and Kevin to put on those little headbands with the devil ears attached. Haha. Oh yeah, it was great. It’s so awesome playing to a crowd and seeing some people who know the words to EVERY SONG! I love that the album is out, and I love that y’all are listening to it. You guys are so awesome, and I really appreciate all of your comments. I love you all so much. Thanks for everything.

It appears also that Jake Owen has green eyes,"Get me with those green eyes, baby, as the lights go down".

Who knows if anything happened, but she was 17 and he was 26 so anything was probably out of the question. It was probably just a crush and this is a song about her crush. Who hasn't had a crush on an older guy when you were in high school? Since she said before that she wrote the song a while ago it makes sense that it could be about him. My guess she has been able to relate other guys to this song (John Mayer) since she wrote it. Maybe some of the lines in the song have to do with him, "You're the kind of reckless, That should send me runnin' ".

Click here for the lyrics, "Sparks Fly".

Click here for the official music video to "Sparks Fly".

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Back to December

Today's Taylor Swift song, the meaning of  "Back to December", released in her "Speak Now" album.

This song was a turning point for Taylor Swift as it was an apology rather than a song about an ex boyfriend. It was a song about how she was wrong. I like to compare this song to "Dear John". Taylor Swift admits that she was in the wrong and acted like some of the people that she writes songs about, "You gave me roses and I left them there to die".

Taylor says, “’Back to December’ is a song that addresses a first for me, in that I’ve never apologized to someone in a song before. This is about a person who was incredible to me, just perfect to me in a relationship, and I was really careless with him. So this is a song full of words that I would say to him.”

Who was this song about?

In the lyric booklet the word TAY is in caps. It is about Taylor Lautner.  They met when they filmed Valentine's Day in October 2009. They broke up right before New Year's, hence the "Back to December" time frame. Taylor Lautner's birthday is February 11, 1992, which would have been after they dated, "When your birthday passed and I didn't call." Did they get back together?

Click here for the lyrics, "Back To December"

No they didn't. She performed the song November 21 at the AMA's and at the end of the song she integrated the song "Apologize" by One Republic and changed the words "It's too late to apologize" to "And then he said it was too late to apologize." Too bad Taylor. Interestingly enough "Apologize is a song that Taylor Lautner had lip synced to for a class project. You can see both Taylor's performances below.

Taylor Lautner's lip sync.

Click here for the official music video for the song, "Back To December".

(In the video the lead male is wearing a jacket that is similar to a jacket that Taylor Lautner wore while they were dating.)

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Enchanted

Today's Taylor Swift Song, the meaning of "Enchanted" from her "Speak Now"album! 

I love the instrumentation in this song and the words of the song. It reminds me of the beginning of a relationship, the first time you meet someone that you know you're going to love and just hoping hoping hoping that you are the only that they like too.

Why did Taylor write this song?

The lyric booklet hint is ADAM.  She randomly capitalizes letters in songs to give hints at what the song is about. She wrote this song about the first time she met Adam Young of Owl City in New York city. Taylor said,

"That song is about pining away for if you're ever going to see someone again-walking away too early. It was about this guy that I met in New York City, and I had talked to him on email or something before, but I had never met him. And meeting him, it was this overwhelming feeling of: I really hope that you're not in love with somebody. And the whole entire way home, I remember the glittery New York City buildings passing by, and then just sitting there thinking, am I ever going to talk to this person again? And that pining away for a romance that may never even happen, but all you have is this hope that it could, and the fear that it never will.

I started writing that in the hotel room when I got back. Because it just was this positive, wistful feeling of: I hope you understand just how much I loved meeting you. I hope that you know that meeting you was not something that I took lightly, or just in passing. And I think my favorite part of that song is the part where, in the bridge, it goes to sort of a stream of consciousness of 'Please don't be in love with someone else/Please don't have somebody waiting on you.' Because at that moment, that's exactly what my thoughts were. And it feels good to write exactly what your thoughts were in a certain moment."

She purposely used the word wonderstruck in the song because she knew it was a word that he liked, "I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home". She said, "That's a word which that person used one time in an email. And I don't think I've ever heard anybody use that term before, so I purposely wrote it in the song, so he would know."

Click here for the lyrics to the song, "Enchanted".

He did respond with is own version (audio below) of Enchanted saying:

"They say 'timing is everything,' and that brings us to now. Today is Valentine's Day. And thus, here is my reply:

Dearest Taylor,
I'll be the first to admit I'm a rather shy boy, and since music is the most eloquent form of communication I can muster, I decided to record something for you - as sort of a 'reply' to the breathtaking song on your current record. This is what I wanted so badly to tell you in person but could never quite put into words:

Everything about you is beautiful. You're an immensely charming girl with a wonderful heart and more grace and elegance than I know how to describe. You are a true princess from a dreamy fairy tale; a modern Cinderella. I'm terribly sorry it's taken me such a long time to reply, but I figured Valentine's Day was the perfect time to write this note to you and simply say ... I was enchanted to meet you too."

Love,
Adam"

Did anything ever happen with Adam?

Sadly :(, nothing happened because of this and Adam has since taken down this entry from his website.

Oh well.Taylor Swift did make a perfume inspired by the song, Wonderstruck. Taylor says, "A fragrance can help shape someone’s first impression and memory of you. It’s exciting to think that Wonderstruck will play a role in creating some of those memories."

The Wonderstruck perfume is "A perfectly charmed deep purple bottle holds this enchanting fragrance. The iridescent rainbow finish, never before used in the fragrance industry, gives the bottle a magical glow. The antiqued gold charms that adorn the bottle were hand-picked by Taylor and are reminiscent of her unique style. The Moravian star, dove and birdcage charms are signature decorative elements that evoke Taylor’s whimsical flair. The charms appear once again within the intricate detail of the embossed cap, capturing Taylor’s love of hidden messages. The carton is a modern day patchwork, homage to the many fabrics Taylor has collected on her travels. The finishing touch to the package is a gold embossed 13, which fans will recognize as Taylor’s lucky number." (A description of the bottle)

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